Sanjay Narvekar revealed that acting happened to him by fluke when he came on Kanala Khada. The actor recalled an incident from college where he and a bunch of friends visited a college festival and decided to audition for a play, just to get an experience. It so happened that Sanjay’s performance was liked by selectors and he bagged the lead role! Since then there was no looking back for him. “I started enjoying acting,” said the actor. He started building a career in plays and then gradually moved to theatre.

When asked about how his family reacted to his decision, Sanjay revealed, “I hail from a typical middle-class background where no one has been involved in the field of entertainment. So when I told my parents, my father didn’t say much but my mother was adamant that I complete my education and get a job. But I was in no mood to listen to her. Eventually she also gave up.”

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Now that’s a pleasant surprise, eh? Arshad Warsi became an overnight sensation, with his role as Circuit in Munnabhai MBBS, which also featured Sanjay Dutt. Narvekar reveals that Arshad’s role was first offered to him! Naverkar had earlier worked with Dutt in Vaastav and could have shared screen space with the Bollywood biggie again, had the dates worked out. “There was a clash of dates at the time and the role went to Arshad. Later when I met Dutt, he told me that he could have pushed the dates, just so that I could have featured in the film. But I feel Munnabhai was in Arshad’s destiny just like Vaastav was in mine. “

Mahesh Manjrekar’s Vaastav was the film that put Sanjay on the map. He played the character of ‘Dedh Footiya,’ that earned him instant recognition. Talking about the success of the film, Sanjay revealed that people started crowding around him wherever he went. “At the premiere of the film, everyone at the theatre was constantly turning and looking at me and saying,’he’s the same guy,'” said the actor.

Aside from films, Sanjay is also involved in theatre and his play All The Best, which he acted in, is considered one of the most popular Marathi plays yet. While talking about the success of the play, Sanjay said, “We have had nearly 1000 shows of the play and all of them have been housefull. Even imminent personalities such as Amitabh Bachchan and Dev Anand have seen it more than once. There was a man who had seen the play nearly 250 times and after a point he would sit with his face towards the audiences, as he remembered all dialogues but wanted to see the audiences reaction.”

Sanjay revealed that despite working in cinema, his first love will always be theatre. The actor has been featured in nearly 25 plays and maintains that he gets to learn a lot from theatre. “If I say a dialogue in a particular way today, there’s no guarantee that I will say it exactly like that the next day. That’s the beauty of theatre. Even though I work in films, I will never leave theatre. And I feel theatre has helped me in my work in films,” said the actor.

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